A. H. H. Hoskins, Who Was On The Coast At The Same Time,
And Also Visited This Spot.
Having applied to my friend
for his deliberate opinion on the subject, he promptly furnished
the following note in January last:
"The Zambesi appears to have five principal mouths, of which the Luabo
is the most southern and most navigable; Cumana, and two whose names
I do not know, not having myself visited it, lying between
it and the Quilimane, and the rise and fall at spring tides
on the bar of the Luabo is 22 feet; and as, in the passage, there is NEVER
less than four feet (I having crossed it at dead low-water - springs),
this would give an average depth sufficient for any commercial purposes.
The rise and fall is six feet greater, the passages narrow and more defined,
consequently deeper and more easily found than that of the Quilimane River.
The river above the bar is very tortuous, but deep; and it is observable
that the influence of the tide is felt much higher in this branch
than in the others; for whereas in the Catrina and Cumana I have obtained
drinkable water a very short distance from the mouth, in the Luabo I have
ascended seventy miles without finding the saltness perceptibly diminished.
This would facilitate navigation, and I have no hesitation in saying
that little difficulty would be experienced in conveying
a steam-vessel of the size and capabilities of the gunboat I lately commanded
as high as the branching off of the Quilimane River (Mazaro), which,
in the dry season, is observed many yards above the Luabo (main stream);
though I have been told by the Portuguese that the freshes
which come down in December and March fill it temporarily.
These freshes deepen the river considerably at that time of the year,
and freshen the water many miles from the coast.
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